Swim Team on the rise

SWIMMING: The Australian Swim Team has wrapped up the 2013
FINA World Championships with three silver medals on the final night of
competition, for a total of 13 medals overall including individual gold to Cate Campbell, James Magnussen and Christian
Sprenger.

The President of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), John Coates, has congratulated the Australian Swimming Team for their achievements in Barcelona.

“There were very encouraging signs coming out of Barcelona and I congratulate all members of the Team,” Coates said. “It is very pleasing to note the increase in medals from the London Games from ten to twelve including the two extra gold medals.”

“Interestingly our hosts from 2012, Great Britain, only managed to win a single bronze medal in Barcelona compared to 3 medals at their home Games,” Coates said.

The United States was again the dominant swimming nation with
29 medals and 13 gold. China and France both won nine medals in the pool with
five gold and four gold respectively. Australia was second on total medals and
fourth on gold.

Alicia Coutts was the star of the meet again for Australia
winning five silver medals. At the London Olympics she also picked up an
amazing five medals with one gold, three silver and 1 bronze. Other multiple medallists were Cate Campbell, Christian Sprenger, James Magnussen and Emily Seebohm.

“I hope that
Alicia will continue on and lead our Swim Team to Rio,” Coates said.

Coates is also
buoyed by the results achieved by our Men’s and Women’s Water Polo Team.

“Congratulations
to our Women’s Water Polo Team going one better from the London Games with a
silver medal at the World Championships in Barcelona. The top 8 performance by
our young Men’s Team was outstanding and clearly they are on the verge of
breaking through into the medal rounds in Rio.”

In the final swim session on Sunday night, 21-year-old Cate Campbell won
the first medal of the session for Australia in the women’s 50m freestyle,
picking up silver in a season’s best time of 24.14.

The fastest going into the final, Campbell had to chase down
one of the quickest starters in world swimming in Ranomi Kromowidjojo from the Netherlands, and was just 0.09 of a
second away from taking out the sprint double.

The Dutch sprinter crashed into the wall in the fastest
textile time ever of 24.05, while younger sister Bronte Campbell finished equal fifth in a time of 24.66, her best
individual performance at a major meet.

The men’s medley relay team of Ashley Delaney, Christian
Sprenger, Tommaso D’Orsogna
and James Magnussen
finished the race in third but were elevated to silver after the USA was
disqualified for breaking between the backstroke and breaststroke changeover.

Led out by Delaney in 53.55, breaststroke gold medallist
Sprenger turned on a split of 58.47, before Magnussen came home in 47.28 with
the Australian team finishing 3:31.64, just 0.13 away from the French and gold.

Campbell was then back in the water to anchor Australia’s
women’s 4x100m medley relay team, joining up with Emily Seebohm, Sally
Foster and Alicia Coutts
to win Australia’s third silver of the night, and 13th medal
overall.

Led out by Seebohm in a 59.40, with Coutts splitting her
butterfly leg in 56.89 for her fifth silver medal of the meet, Campbell stormed
home in 52.09 with Australia finishing just two seconds behind the US in
3:55.22. The silver medal was also a first for South Australian
breaststroker Foster who split 1:06.84.

In other finals involving Australians, Gold Coast teenager Jordan Harrison finished sixth in the
final of the men’s 1500m freestyle in an impressive performance for the
youngest man in the field.

Finishing the 30 lap swim in a time of 15:00.44, the
18-year-old said it’s only ‘onwards and upwards’ after learning so much at his
first major international meet.

Harrison’s occasional training partner and the Olympic
champion, Sun Yang from China
again proved his distance dominance to win gold in a time of 14:41.15.

Fellow Gold Coast swimmer Thomas Fraser-Holmes finished eighth in the final of the men’s
400m IM in 4:17.46 with Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto winning in a time of 4:08.69.

The Australian Swim Team will next compete at the 2014 Aquatic
Super Series in Perth in January, with the Australian Short Course
Championships to be held in Sydney later this month (Aug 23-25).

The AOC is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation, committed to the development of youth and sport. It is our responsibility to select, send and fund Australian Teams to the Olympic Games.

This is achieved by the support of our sponsors, contributions from the Australian Olympic Foundation (AOF), fundraising at corporate events and the backing of State and Territory Governments who donate to our Olympic Team Appeal.

The Australian Olympic Committee thanks all of our partners for their generous support of the Olympic athletes.